Glamour's Women of the Year 2016: Gwen Stefani, Simone Biles, Ashley Graham, and More Honorees

While Glamour's Women of the Year Awards are truly our favorite event each fall, this year feels particularly monumental. So far, 2016 has shown us Beyoncé's groundbreaking visual album Lemonade, women smashing records at the Rio Olympics—not to mention the nomination of the first female U.S. presidential candidate for a major party. Women are pushing the conversation forward in unprecedented ways, no matter the issue. Brave women worldwide have shown us that you can do great things in life when you find a way to park your doubts at the curb.

Now in its 27th year, Women of the Year is evolving. For the first time, we'll celebrate on November 14 in Los Angeles, not in New York City, and include a daytime summit at which hundreds of women can learn from each other and cheer each other on. At the Women of the Year Awards that evening, Glamour will honor inspiring women from across the worlds of fashion, politics, entertainment, sports, and activism. Tracee Ellis Ross will host a ceremony that recognizes Gwen Stefani, Simone Biles, the three women—Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi—who founded the #BlackLivesMatter movement, the Stanford sexual assault case survivor now know as "Emily Doe," Ashley Graham, Christine Lagarde, Nadia Murad, Miuccia Prada, and Zendaya.

Plus, for the first time, the awards also honor a man. For years our Women of the Year Advisory Board—made up of past winners, plus our editors—has put the kibosh on naming a Man of the Year on the grounds that men aren't exactly hurting for awards in this world, and that here at Glamour, the tribe we're into celebrating is female. But these days most women want men—no, need men—in our tribe. When the president declared himself a feminist, when super-cool actors line up to endorse the United Nations' #HeForShe campaign, when a major male rock star who could do anything at all with his life decides to focus on the rights of women and girls worldwide—well, all that's worth celebrating. We're proud to name that rock star, Bono, our first Man of the Year.

Tune in on November 14 beginning at 9:00 A.M. PT on facebook.com/glamour to soak up the daytime sessions and the evening awards. We hope you'll find stories, and women, to be inspired by. And with that, meet our 2016 Women of the Year honorees:

Gwen Stefani has been making music since 1987, when she decided to start a ska band, No Doubt, with her brother. We all know what came next: Stefani led the group to pop glory and then carved out her own category-busting career as a solo artist. Next, the Grammy winner branched out into fashion, with her L.A.M.B. clothing line, and became a coach on The Voice. But it was 2016 that kicked o a series of new milestones for Stefani: This Is What the Truth Feels Like, written after her divorce from Gavin Rossdale, was her first solo album in a decade, and her first to debut at number one. She took those hits on her first major tour in years (her boys—Kingston, 10; Zuma, 8; and Apollo, 2—joined her on the road). And as the world knows, she also found a new love: Blake Shelton, the country music star she got to know on The Voice. Every year, every decade, Stefani has written uncompromising music; she’s shown us all how to summon strength through self-expression.

“Sometimes to be woken up again in life, you need to go through some really bad, hard times,” she says. “I feel like I got woken up this year.”

Simone Biles started gymnastics lessons when she was six, partly—as her family jokes—so she’d have a place to do jumps and flips other than on their furniture. Her raw talent immediately caught the eye of a coach, and she quickly shot up through the ranks. But after she earned a spot on the senior national team in 2013, Biles’ confidence began to crumble. A sports psychologist helped her learn to trust her talent—and to enjoy the experience. And once that mind-set kicked in, Biles, now 19, began winning everything in sight, including 10 world championship gold medals and five medals at the 2016 Olympic Games. Since Rio, she’s been hard at work on another project: writing her memoir, Courage to Soar, out this month. Oh, and the Tokyo Games in 2020? Biles hasn’t decided if she’ll compete there yet; right now she’s too busy savoring her 2016 victories. “When you stand up there on the podium, and the national anthem is playing, it’s surreal,” she says. “You realize all your hard work has paid off.”

The morning after George Zimmerman was found not guilty in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, Alicia Garza, 35, took to Facebook with her sorrow. Her now-famous words are a lament, an exhortation, and a praise song: “Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter,” her post ended. Patrisse Cullors, 33, shared the posts, spontaneously hashtagging them #BlackLivesMatter. Tometi, 32, saw the hashtag and reached out to Garza, and volunteered to build a digital platform—the three women, all activists, wanted to find a way to bring people together. With that, a rallying cry for a new generation was born. “We gave tongue to something that we all knew was happening,” Tometi says. “We were courageous enough to call it what it was. But more than that, to offer an alternative. An aspirational message: Black lives matter.”

Bono, 56, has an extraordinary talent not just for music, but for tackling problems that seem intractable—and making mighty gains. In 2004 he cofounded ONE, the international volunteer advocacy organization that has helped get lifesaving AIDS drugs to millions of people in Africa. And now Bono has created Poverty Is Sexist, a campaign specifically aimed at helping the world’s poorest women—those who survive on less than $2 a day. The campaign’s first order of business: to document a clear link between poverty and gender, and send that data to every president and prime minister in the world. That report motivated leaders to donate an additional $13 billion to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, which will help save the lives of millions of women and babies. By establishing Poverty Is Sexist, Bono is making it clear that powerful men can, and should, take on these deep-rooted issues. “The battle for gender equality can’t be won unless men lead it along with women,” he says. “We’re largely responsible for the problem, so we have to be involved in the solutions.”

This February Ashley Graham became the first size- 16 model ever to land the cover of Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue—instantly bringing size acceptance into the mainstream with just one (fabulous) photo. One tool Graham used to help make it happen: social media. She saw emerging digital platforms as a way to directly connect with women, no “permission” from casting directors or model agents required. She began posting selfies and behind-the-scenes snaps at fashion shoots, many hashtagged #beautybeyondsize. Women responded (“They were tired of seeing one form of beauty for so long,” she says), and her fan base quickly grew—today she has more than 2.6 million followers on Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter. With that massive platform, she’s been pushing for change in the fashion industry. But her deepest wish will always be for girls: “I hope they look in the mirror and say, ‘I am beautiful,’” she says. “When you do that, it’s a whole other ball game—you start to understand that your words have power.”

First female finance minister of France, first woman in charge of any G8 country’s economic portfolio— Christine Lagarde, 60, has broken through so many glass ceilings that it sometimes seems as if "first female” is her actual first name. In 2011 she also became the first female managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the powerful global institution that acts as the world’s financial doctor, assessing members’ fiscal wellbeing and providing both policy and financial support. Under Lagarde, the IMF has integrated China’s currency into the global system and helped stabilize the economies of Portugal, Ireland, and Greece—all while explicitly beginning to address gender inequality. To Lagarde, encouraging member countries to do better by women simply makes sense: “It’s not just a fundamentally moral cause; it is an absolute economic no-brainer,” she believes. Today Lagarde—perhaps the only finance leader in history to be called a superhero, a rockstar, and a style icon—measures her success in a very personal way: “What I am always very touched by is when young women, and sometimes young girls, turn to me and say they see me as a role model. If I can help them achieve what they want to achieve, then that’s brilliant.”

Nadia Murad, 23, grew up in a quiet farming village called Kocho, nestled in the mountains of northern Iraq. “It was a beautiful village,” she says, “and the prettiest thing in it was my home and my family.” But on August 15, ISIS fighters invaded the area; the men in the village were executed, and the young women were kidnapped and forced to become sex slaves. Murad endured their torture for three months and then miraculously managed to escape. Now, in an act of astonishing moxie, she is trying to bring ISIS to justice at the International Criminal Court. By sharing her story, she’s gotten the world’s attention—from diplomats at the United Nations to activists like Amal Clooney to, yes, the leaders of ISIS. The terrorist group has threatened her and her surviving family members. Despite those threats, Murad isn’t stopping. She’s started a global initiative against genocide at nadiamurad.org and plans to continue to speak out. “I’m not afraid of them,” she says. “What more can they do to me? There’s no place in me for fear now.”

Once upon a time, Miuccia Prada had zero interest in fashion as a career. She was more interested in theater (she trained as a mime) and politics. But almost 40 years later, the empire she has built includes more than 600 stores worldwide; she debuts six Prada collections a year and four for sister line Miu Miu. Last year Prada, along with her husband and CEO, Patrizio Bertelli, opened a groundbreaking Rem Koolhaas–designed headquarters for their Fondazione Prada in Milan; this year the brand also launched fragrances La Femme Prada and L’Homme Prada. The magic of so much success comes from, plain and simple, the curious, eclectic, independent, feminist brain of Prada herself. “Years before anyone was talking about female empowerment through fashion, Miuccia was assiduously designing clothes that spoke to our need for beautiful things to wear, while simultaneously celebrating and confounding what it means to be a woman in today’s world,” says longtime friend Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue.

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For Prada, the joy is still in the process. “Fun...should always be present when you work,” says Prada. “Until I am smiling, I know I am doing nothing good.”

In fifth grade Zendaya saw one of her classmates being bullied—and, like many of her friends, stood by rather than get involved. Her parents told her that was unacceptable: “Their point was, knowing something is wrong and not doing anything,” she says, “is basically like doing it.” Zendaya, now 20, still lives by that philosophy. The star of Shake It Up and K.C. Undercover has emerged as a key voice of a generation pushing for change. She’s mobilized her fan base (32 million Instagram followers) to benefit programs like Convoy of Hope’s feedONE initiative and UNAIDS. Her platform will only grow larger next year as she leaps into movies, starring in Spider-Man: Homecoming, and launches both a fashion line, Daya by Zendaya, and Zendaya: The App. But most of all, she hopes to continue to inspire fans to take action. “You have to learn to appreciate yourself and the power you hold,” she says. “Whatever is inside of you—your soul, your power—find it. See it. Respect it. Protect it. And use it.”

It started with a simple sentence: “You don’t know me, but you’ve been inside me, and that’s why we’re here today.” Those powerful words were part of a “victim’s impact statement” that a young woman who’d been sexually assaulted at Stanford University had prepared to read to her attacker in court and were later released on BuzzFeed. The facts of the case were harrowing: On January 18, 2015, after a party,
“Emily Doe,” as she came to be called, had been sexually assaulted by freshman Brock Turner as she lay unconscious behind a dumpster. But it was Doe’s take-no-prisoners telling of what happened afterward that changed the conversation about sexual assault forever. “I am a human being who has been irreversibly hurt,” she wrote. “You took away my worth, my privacy, my energy, my time, my safety, my intimacy, my confidence, my own voice, until today.” Doe found her voice, if not her justice.

After Turner was convicted last spring, the judge sentenced him to just six months, saying anything more would have “a severe impact
on him” (to help with efforts to recall Judge Persky, go to recallaaronpersky.com). But Doe’s words circled the globe. Within four days her statement had been viewed 11 million times; it was read aloud on CNN and the floor of Congress. Rape hotlines experienced surges in both calls and offers of volunteer help. And importantly, California closed the loophole that had allowed lighter sentences in cases where the victim is unconscious or severely intoxicated.

Ms. Milbradt, producer, writer, and director, began her career in the indie film world, later launching one of IFC’s first scripted series. She is currently creating her first series for virtual reality, Pinkbox; executive producing a series based on Margaret Atwood’s bestselling trilogy, MaddAddam, alongside Darren Aronofsky; and adapting 50 of Anaïs Nin’s short stories for the screen.